Dominican Republic captures bronze in Tokyo

THE FEEDER NATION TO MLB IN NORTH AMERICA

On the diamond, the Dominican baseball team — including former Toronto Blue Jays José Bautista, Melky Cabrera, Juan Francisco, and Emilio Bonifácio

Nick Aguilera

@ByNickAguilera

The Dominican Republic is your bronze medal winner at the Tokyo Olympics. 

The Dominicans defeated South Korea, 10-6, in a wild game to take home the third-place prize, winning their first Olympic medal in baseball.

The Dominicans jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first inning, knocking South Korea's starter Min Woo Kim out of the game after just one out. Emilio Bonifácio led off with a double to right field, then MLB’s No. 3 prospect Julio Rodríguez smacked a two-run homer. Juan Francisco followed suit, launching a solo homer in a back-to-back effort. Charlie Valerio then added another run on a sacrifice fly off of reliever Woo Chan Cha. The D.R. later added a fifth run in the fifth inning after Melky Cabrera drove in Johan Mieses on an RBI single.

The South Koreans didn't let their early struggles faze them, though. Former Orioles outfielder Hyun Soo Kim helped his team get back in the game, as he hit a double and later scored on Kun Woo Park’s single in the second inning. Kim also clubbed a solo homer in the fourth inning. South Korea then staged a rally of its own in the fifth inning, as it scored four runs to take the lead, 6-5.

In the eighth inning, the Dominicans took a hold of the game again and didn’t look back, scoring five times. Francisco continued his big game, driving in two runs on a long double to the left-center gap. Mieses then launched a two-run homer to knock former Cardinals closer Seunghwan Oh out of the game.

Cristopher Mercedes was terrific out of the bullpen for the Dominican Republic, allowing zero earned runs across 3 1/3 innings to earn the win. Mercedes came in at the tail end of the fifth inning and allowed an inherited runner to score, but quickly settled down to give the D.R. some much needed stability on the mound.

After Mercedes allowed two hits to start the ninth, the Dominican Republic turned to Jumbo Diaz for the save. Diaz set down the next three batters in order to propel the D.R. to victory and the bronze.